|
 Out there in the home orchard, pruning is for
structural reasons, maintaining the scaffolds that will hold the
fruit. In the home landscape, dormant pruning is for structure, as
well insect and disease management.
For those that bloom early spring, gardeners have the chance to
bring that beauty inside to enjoy before the outdoor spring show.
After the needed pruning, look at the branches you have removed and
find some with lots of flower buds. Those are the branches to bring
inside to “force” blooms.
Hint: Flower buds are going to be plump and bigger in size compared
to foliage buds. Flowering buds can be located on the end of a
branch (as with lilac and most viburnums) or up and down the stems
(like with forsythia).
Outdoors, flower buds are ready to go as soon as nature provides the
right signals – both warming temperatures and the right number of
“chilling hours.” (Fruit trees and flowering shrubs have different
chilling hour requirements.) Those with a low number of hours will
want to bloom early, think peaches for example. Those requiring many
more hours will bloom later, think apples and flowering crabapples.
For landscape shrubs, Alpine currant is an early bloomer, and lilacs
are later.
Once inside with your selected branches, the general
steps to follow are:
• Make a new cut on a long diagonal to expose as much tissue for
water absorption as possible [to top of second
column] |
• Wrap the branches in a wet towel or submerge them overnight to
soften the bud scales
• Once in the vase keep the flower buds moist by misting one or more times a day
so the bud scales do not harden and prevent flower emergence
• Keep away from a direct heat source and sunlight
• Be patient; it usually will take one to three weeks for blooms to show up,
depending the plant.
• Change out the water before it gets cloudy (NO additives are needed, just
fresh, clean water)
Once in bloom, flowers will last about a week. If you want that bloom show to
last longer inside, cut and add more branches on a weekly basis for a succession
of bloom. Flowering shrubs can take as little as a week to bloom indoors, while
flowering crabapples and fruiting apples are in the two- to three-week range
(and may sometimes take up to four weeks). Hint: The closer you are to the
plant’s normal bloom time, the more successful you will be and the less time it
will take indoors before you see flowers emerge.
With pruners in hand, head out to get the job done, knowing you’ll also bring in
a little reward for your hard work now and that you'll enjoy even more when
spring arrives.
[Richard Hentschel, Horticulture
Educator, University of Illinois Extension] |
